Washington DC

So we received our letter from the Bolivian Branch on Thursday night. About 6 hours before we left to go to Washington DC. A brother in our congregation and his wife checked our mail everyday for us and it finally came. They sent us a scanned copy of it since mailing it to us would be useless. So the letter did finally come. We were so relived. Then we left at 1am on Friday. It took us 6 hours to get to Washington D.C. We drove to the US Authentications office and were in and out in about 15 minutes. Then we went to the Bolivian Consulate. It was so tiny. It was in this rinky dink little place next to a laundry mat. We brought them all our paperwork and they hand us 4 deposit slips. They tell us to go to the nearest Bank of America and deposit $43 4 different times into their account, so that they can have the receipts to tape to the back of the authenticated letters. So off we were walking around D.C looking for a Bank of America. There was one about 4 blocks away thank goodness. Then it was back to the Consulate. Then we give them all our paperwork and they tell us to sit down. So we wait a few minutes then the gentleman brings our paperwork back to us and says it's all done. We ask him "Where is our passports and other paperwork?" He walks back and comes back to ask us to follow him. Then we get to the back and have to explain to them what we are doing. Which we told them at the beginning. :) Oh I love dealing with the Bolivian Consulate. Finally they figured it out and told us they have to email some paperwork to the Bolivian Government and we should have our passports and all by Friday. Patience, patience, and more patience. Well after that we went to our hotel and changed and went back to D.C to look at some museums. We went to the National Air and Space Museum, the Capital, and other smaller museums. Then we found a restaurant to eat at and went back to our hotel. On Saturday we went to the Holocaust museum. It was really good to see what we did. It really made you realize how much power one person can have and that it could happen again. I am so proud of the good witness the Jehovah's Witnesses gave in the concentration camps. They had a Bible that one of the Witnesses had there. I was so proud that they were the only ones given the chance to sign a document saying they renounced their faith and they did not. I hope I have strong faith like that. It also impressed on me how much Jehovah must have helped them. Then we went to the National Museum of Natural History. After we saw the Washington Monument and the White House. Then we headed back to the hotel to change and find a restaurant. We found this really cool restaurant in D.C. It was called the Little Ethiopian Restaurant. The food was super good and you ate with your hands which I liked. We had a bottle of Ethiopian Honey Wine too which was super good. Then that was it off to bed. :) Today we woke up around 9 had breakfast and drove home. 8 hours not to bad. Now to unpack and start downsizing...again. Check out our picture link in the previous post for pics.

In Ohio

So last Friday we drove up here to Ohio to visit our family and friends. While driving up we stopped at the Hofbrauhaus in Newport, Kentucky. It was so awesome and authentic German food. We had dinner that night with Chris, Erin, Tyler, Ethan Morrison and Linda. Then on Saturday we went in service and enjoyed a nice day out in the ministry. Later that night Justin and I were surprised with a going away party for us. We had a wonderful bonfire and great food. They had two cakes made for us with our pictures on it and a picture of where we will be living in Bolivia. It was so great to have everyone together. Thank you everyone for that we really enjoyed it. Then on Sunday we went to the meeting and had lunch with Matt and his kids. Then later that day we went to Danielle's house and helped with unloading some hay. Then we went four-wheeling. It was a lot of fun. I am glad that they opened their home to us so we could enjoy ourselves. Then on Monday we met Jonathan and Rebekah for early morning service and stayed out with them until 6pm. We were so tired after that. Tuesday, we slept in and Justin did some work online and we went to see Sr. Pat Myers. Then we went to JcPenny's because we heard that they had short sleeve dress shirts for men on sale. We picked up four for Justin. Then we went to dinner with Linda to Olive Garden. On Wednesday, we met with Jonathan and Rebekah again in early morning service. We went to their house and had pancakes and bacon and watched the Bolivia video with them. We enjoyed another long day with them and stayed out until 5pm. Then we went to Applebee's with Linda for dinner. Now it is Wednesday night and we are going to sleep in again tomorrow and Justin is going to finish up some work. Then on Thursday night - Friday morning we are heading over to Washington DC in order to get to the Secretary of State office at 7:30am. We are going to stay in Washington DC until Sunday. We still have not received our letter from the Bolivian Bethel. Mail is so uncertain from Bolivia to here. I hope we get it soon. :) Trust in Jehovah, right. :) Well I will let you know how it goes. Here are some pictures so far.

Click here to view these pictures larger

Running around Nashville, TN

So yesterday we called the Bolivian Consulate in Washington DC to make sure that we did not have to send any other paperwork other then the letter from the Bolivian Branch. Well come to find out as of July 17th, 2010 there was a new policy put into place for ones wanting to get a special purpose visa. This was the first time we had heard of this. Well what they needed was a letter from our local Kingdom Hall stating that it was a part of the Watchtower and Tract Society, in both Spanish and English. Then we had to have another letter stating that Justin and I were both Jehovah's Witnesses, in Spanish and in English. So this consisted of 8 letters. Well we have to have them notarized. So this morning at 8 am we met up with the secretary of our Kingdom Hall at the local UPS and had them notarized. Then we drove to Nashville, to the Secretary of State's office. When we arrived we talked to the lady in charge and found out that we had drove 3 hours and had needed to get a certification in our county before we came there. I started to cry. I was so stressed and was holding it in that I just broke. I hate crying in front of people it embarrasses me. Well then she said that we could go to their local County office and get the papers notarized.
So off we were to go to the local County office. Well when we got there the lady told us we needed to go find a gentleman and ask him to notarize our papers. We went to the front desk and was directed directly to him. After explaining our situation he asked where was the person who signed the papers, we told him he was back in Knoxville. After reading our paperwork he took the 8 papers to his desk and began stamping and signing them. I pulled out my checkbook to pay him and he told us that we were doing such a great thing that he couldn't take our money and that we had payed that morning so he would feel bad taking our money twice. It was so awesome. We were really relieved.
Then we went back to the lady we had spoke with earlier. She attached a paper to each of the documents and signed them. Then she directed us back to the State Secretary's Office to get the rest of the Authentication done. So off we went again back to the State Secretary's Office. We caught the lady we had spoke with earlier and she said that she could now authenticate it. So after about 10 minutes we had 8 authenticated papers from the State in our hands. We were so relieved. We went for a late lunch and headed home.
Well that is it for today, but in about a week we have to drive to Washington DC after we go to Ohio and have these papers Authenticated by the US State Secretary. Then take theses papers and the letter from the branch (which we have not received yet) back to the Bolivian Consulate in DC. We are going to do all this in person to make sure it gets done. Hopefully then we can get our 30 special purpose visa to be allowed into the country. Without that visa we can not apply for residency. I do not even want to think about the paperwork involved in getting that. :/

Surprise Party 9.11.10

Click here to view these pictures larger

Surprise Going Away Party

Well I am writing this after returning home from a surprise going away party that our congregation had for us. It was so wonderful. It overwhelmed me a little and I cried. It was so nice to see all of my friends there. They had made all our favorite foods. MMMmmmm!! The kids sang two kingdom songs. They did such a great job. Then we watched the newest Bolivia video. Then they had a drama after that it was about David and Goliath. It was amazing. They had pre-recorded their voices, they had an intro like they do at the assemblies even. It was so cool. They had all the outfits too. They had one of our elders dressed as a bear, like when the bear tried to eat David's sheep and he had to hit it. Then Goliath was a tall brother in our hall. It was funny I couldn't stop laughing. They practiced and worked so hard on it. It is funny because we usually stay after the meeting on Wednesday until the end and they all were waiting downstairs for us to leave. LOL They stayed up until 12 o'clock at night working on it. I can not believe they did all that for us. It was so nice. I will have to post pictures when I get some. They also gave us a book where everyone in the hall wrote something to us. It is so nice to be able to take those encouraging words with us to Bolivia. I love the brothers and sisters in our hall soooooo much.

First Week of Pioneering Together

So we have completed one week of pioneering together. So far so good. We started 2 studies and are ready to go back out in service tomorrow. Today we laid around the house and relaxed. We figured that Mondays would be the day we would rest and catch up on everything for the next week. We are 50% complete with our visas to Bolivia. Right now we are waiting for a letter from the Bolivian Branch in Santa Cruz. We have to have an official letter that we can send to the Bolivian consulate here. Hopefully it will get here soon because we have a very short time before we leave. It is in Jehovah's hands. I have complete confidence. :) I had a hard day on Saturday because we worked in service at the flea market. It was hard for me because not only are you walking up to people to talk to them but it is almost like you have to chase them down. That made me so nervous. Then on top of that I got turned down every time. Which is rare. One guy even closed my Bible on me. It hurt because I was so nervous in the first place and then for him to do that just made we worse. I have been feeling down about my Spanish too, but I am working on that by listening to podcasts on my iTouch before I go to sleep so that I think about it in the night too. Thank you everyone for the encouragement. You may not realize how much us means to us. It really does help to hear encouraging things. Last night we went to Booms Day which is the biggest fireworks show in the nation. It was so amazing. Here is a few pictures of us and Jared Greene our friend, who was in town for the weekend.

Click here to view these pictures larger

1st Day of Pioneering Together

Well that about sums it up. LOL Today was awesome. We woke up at 6am and got ready to do some early morning service at 7am. It was so nice to have the support of our friend Denielle who is pioneering also. We had a really good morning. Justin got a Bible study at his very first door he did today. That made me a little jealous because he is so awesome at Spanish. Well you know me. If someone else does it so do I. At the very next door I got a Bible study. :) Jehovah was so blessing us today. Denielle was doing so good this morning also, talking to all the Spanish people we met at gas stations. So this is the very first day of how the rest of our life will be. :) We had to take pictures so I am posting a few.

Click here to view these pictures larger